The House of Blue Leaves

American playwright, John Guare’s comic play, The House of Blue Leaves, premiered Off-Broadway in 1971. Its focus is on what happens when the Pope visits New York. The play won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play in 1971, although it received mixed reviews from theater critics. It is still, however, a popular production. Guare is well known for plays that mix comedy with failed aspirations and sharp characterization. Some of his plays also touch on the genre of farce. He’s a current council member of the Dramatists Guild.

The House of Blue Leaves takes place in 1965 in Sunnyside, Queens, on the day of Pope Paul VI’s papal visit to New York City. There are a handful of primary characters. Artie Shaughnessy is an aspiring songwriter who currently works as a local zookeeper. He wants to live in Hollywood and get famous. His wife, Bananas, suffers severe mental health problems and is a diagnosed schizophrenic.

Bananas doesn’t know about Artie’s girlfriend, Bunny, or that the pair plan to run away to Hollywood, leaving her in an institution. Bananas and Artie have a son, Ronnie, a US soldier who goes missing from his base at Fort Dix before he’s deployed to Vietnam. At the start of the play, Artie is sleeping on the couch inside a sleeping bag because he doesn’t share a bed with his wife. He’s sleeping soundly and doesn’t hear Ronnie breaking into the apartment.



The doorbell rings and Artie gets up to answer it. In the dark, he doesn’t see Ronnie, who runs into Artie’s bedroom to hide. When Artie opens the door, Bunny comes in. She’s excited because of the Pope’s visit in the morning. She wants to go into the streets to see him drive past. She wants to make sure to get outside early to get a good view. Neither of them knows that Ronnie is hiding in the bedroom, trying not to make a sound. Ronnie manages to stay out of sight the whole night.

In the morning, Artie makes breakfast for everyone and improvises a song in celebration of the papal visit. Bananas wakes up and is angry at him for making fun of the Pope. To shut her up and calm her down, Artie throws food at her mouth. She catches it like an animal in the zoo. Bunny hopes that Bananas dies soon. She tells Bananas she should go down to Mexico and file for divorce because it’s easy to get processed down there. Bananas gets upset again, and Artie tells her he’s found a hospital for her to stay in.

Meanwhile, Ronnie appears. He wires two grenades to Artie’s alarm clock and sets the makeshift bomb into a box. He plans on blowing up the Pope when he gets to Yankee Stadium after touring the streets. No one knows Ronnie is in the apartment. They’re still busy keeping Bananas calm and planning where they’ll go to get a good view of the Pope. For a moment, Artie feels like they’re all one big happy family and that it’s a shame they can’t all live together in the long term.



The three of them move outside and find a spot to stand in the crowd. Artie returns to the apartment to find the lyrics to a song he thinks will make the Pope more likely to notice him. He’s determined to get a papal blessing, as he hopes this will help him break into Hollywood. However, when he gets into the apartment, he finds Ronnie, and the explosion plot is revealed.

Someone else arrives at the door while Artie’s dealing with this. She’s a once-renowned movie star who’s friends with Artie’s friend, Billy. Billy is a prominent director and Artie hopes he’ll get him script work one day. Everyone’s very excited that there’s a Hollywood star in the apartment and they move back inside. Two nuns also arrive because they’re looking for a good view. It’s not long before the apartment is too crowded, and Bananas gets agitated.

To make matters worse, officers arrive to arrest Ronnie for desertion. He gives the bomb, disguised in a box, to the actress before he leaves. Everyone is still confused, and they all start arguing with each other.



In the chaos, the bomb detonates. The explosion kills the actress and the two nuns; everything turns into bedlam. Billy, who has no idea Ronnie is responsible for the bomb, goes to the jail to bail Ronnie out to get away from the scene. He’s devastated because he lost the woman he loves. However, he won’t be alone for long.

Billy invites Bunny to live in Australia with him while he films a new picture. She jumps at the chance. Artie is left behind; Billy tells him his dream will never come true and he should take care of his family. When they leave, Bananas gets upset again and Billy strangles her.